Manuscript on parchment (fine; leaves repaired before pricking and ruling) of the Collected Works of Hugh of St. Victor.
Description:
8-line illuminated initial, blue with white highlights on square ground, magenta with blue and white highlights; interior of initial inhabited by scrolling vines, rabbit and two animal heads on gold and blue ground; tail of letter extends down inner margin. 11- to 7-line red and blue initials divided by a zig-zag line in parchment and with interior red and blue flourishes resembling the design on a peacock's tail feathers, mostly in red with small blue circles. This style of initial accompanied by long penwork extensions in red and blue I designs and with small spirals, circles, flourishes. Small 3-line initials alternate red and blue with penwork flourishes in the opposite color. 1-line plain initials alternate red and blue for chapter lists. Remains of guide letters for decorator. Headings, running titles (often incorrect), deletions (single horiztonal red line) and initial strokes in red., Binding: France [?], ca. 19th c. Brown calf, elaborately blind-stamped with figure of Christ giving a blessing with his right hand, while his left hand holds a book with alpha and omega displayed on the open pages. Original endbands (and therefore sewing?) and yellow edges., Binding: Nineteenth century, France (?). Brown calf, elaborately blind-stamped with figure of Christ giving a blessing with his right hand, while his left hand holds a book with alpha and omega displayed on the open pages. Original endbands (and therefore sewing?) and yellow edges., Purchased from L. C. Witten in 1960 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written in uniform gothic bookhand throughout; contemporary marginal notes in several less formal hands., and Written in uniform gothic bookhand throughout; contemporary marginal notes in several less formal hands.
Subject (Name):
Hugh,--of Saint-Victor,--1096?-1141
Subject (Topic):
Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Pauline Epistles (Epistola ad Romanos 2.27 through Epistola ad Hebreos 11.34), with commentary of Gilbert de la Porree. With Argumenta, later additions, all attributed to Hugo de Sancto Caro or Peter Lombard.
Description:
Binding: Twentieth century, United States (?). Half bound in dark red goatskin with gold-tooled lettering on the spine ("St. Paul/ Epistulae cum commento/ MS. 12th Cent."), marbled paper sides, and yellow edges., Script: Written in fine early gothic bookhand in two sizes of script, above top line., and Three illuminated initials at beginning of first three Epistles of excellent quality, ff. 34v, 69v, 86v, 8- to 5-line, with descenders extending into margins, red, blue, green and beige against gold ground. Bodies of initials filled with stylized scrolling foliage, bright blue, red, green, orange, silver and yellow with white highlights against gold ground. Descenders serve as a trellis for similar scrolls, some ending in biting animal's heads or fantastic birds. Scrolling foliage, f. 86v, inhabited by beasts of a canine variety, white with red shading. The decoration of manuscript is unfinished; f. 99r pen and ink underdrawing for an initial as above, with only touches of red added; blank spaces left for initals for remaining Epistles. Small initials, 3-line, gold with red penwork, for beginning of commentary for each Epistle. Headings in red or alternating red and blue majuscules. Plain initials touched with red. Running titles, later addition, in red.
Subject (Name):
Gilbert, de La Porrée, Bishop, ca. 1075-1154, Hugh, of Saint-Cher, Cardinal, ca. 1200-1263, Paul, the Apostle, Saint, and Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, ca. 1100-1160
Subject (Topic):
Bible.--N.T.--Epistles of Paul, Bible--Commentaries, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of Flavius Blondus (Flavio Biondo, 1396-1463), Roma instaurata.
Description:
Binding: ca. 1500, Italy. Brown goatskin over wooden boards, both covers blind-tooled with frame and centre-piece, the latter in the shape of a cross composed of small rhomboid stamps showing some remnants of gold. Remnants of one clasp attached to the front cover, with a brass catch fixed with three nails to the rear cover., Rather carelessly written headings in purplish red ink, added posteriously at the beginning of the Prologue and of each Book, not corresponding to the instructions for the rubricator written in the margins by the scribe (no such instruction is visible on f. 3r). White vinestem initial (5 lines) and border in the same style in the upper and inner margins at the head of the Prologue (f. 3r). The Books open with 2-3-line plain initials (Capitalis) in blue; a similar 2-line initial was planned (and executed) at the beginning of what would be chapter 3 (“Ambitum”, f. 4v), but this practice was afterwards abandoned. Guide letters for the initials in the margin., Script: Copied by a single hand writing a rapid Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of the Prologue and the first word or second letter of the three Books are written in Capitalis., and Sold by Alberto Govi, Modena to Fred K. Schreiber, New York. Purchased from Schreiber on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund.
Subject (Geographic):
Rome
Subject (Topic):
Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Title within woodcut border. Historiated initials. Full-page coast of arms and crest of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester (to whom the work is dedicated) on verso of title. Full-page portrait of author on verso of 3d p.l.
Manuscript on paper of an unidentified treatise, incomplete, on the Cardinal Virtues; material taken mostly from Valerius Maximus, with additional material from Augustine, the Bible, Cicero, Seneca, Macrobius, Aristotle, and Vegetius. and Unidentified treatise, incomplete, on the Cardinal Virtues; material taken mostly from Valerius Maximus, with additional material from Augustine (De civitate Dei, De beata vita, Epistolae), Bible (Proverbs), Cicero (De officiis, etc.), Seneca (Epistolae morales, De ira, De constantia), Macrobius, Aristotle, Vegetius, the "Storie Romane" of "Arineo" (f. 6r), and "Salino" (f. 23v). The presence of the "versificatore" (f. 11r), cited in Latin (Walther, Sprichwoerter 33507), and a similar constellation of sources suggest that Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Doctrinale was a major (though not exclusive) source for this author.
Description:
Imperfect: incomplete manuscript; leaves 42-43 also wanting. and Written by a single scribe in humanistic cursive script.
Subject (Name):
Valerius Maximus
Subject (Topic):
Cardinal virtues, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Diogenes Laertius, Vitae et sententiae philosophorum, translated into Latin by Ambrogio Traversari and preceded by his dedicatory letter to Cosimo de' Medici.
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century, Italy. A hybrid Italo-Greek binding. Sewn or resewn (the sewing is too tight to determine with certainty) on five tawed skin, slit straps. Wooden boards which are not flush at head and tail are grooved on the edges. Beaded Western endbands added. Covered in dark brown calf, blind-tooled with a triple cross made up of gilt annular dots and rope interlace in a central panel within concentric frames alternately made up of a beaded zigzag ribbon and feathered rinceau. Similar tools are used on Marston MSS 39 and 68. Spine: bands outlined and panels diapered with triple fillets. Traces of four braid-and-pin fastenings, the pins in the edges of the lower board instead of the upper board as is usual in Greek bindings. "Diogenes ***" is added on the fore edge; "diogenes laergi" is written in batarde on a label under horn at the head of the upper board, possibly added in northern Europe., Script: Main text written in round humanistic bookhand by a single scribe., Some worming at beginning of text., and The decoration consists of a 3/4 border, f. 1r, of intricate white vine-stem ornament curling around thin gold bars (doubled in inner and lower margins) on a blue, green and pale pink ground dotted with white, yellow and blue, and gold balls. Incorporated into the lower border are a medallion (blank) framed by a laurel wreath and two narrow gold bands, a stag, and a putto with multi-colored wings in blue, green and dark red. In the inner margin are two birds in brown, orange and white. Ten illuminated initials, 9- to 4-line, gold on blue, green and pale pink background with white vine-stem ornament. Numerous smaller initials, 3- to 2-line, gold on blue and pink or green and pink grounds with white and gold filigree. Headings in black majuscules. Running headlines, in red, on ff. 1-4 only.
Subject (Name):
Diogenes Laertius and Medici, Cosimo de',--1389-1464
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Philosophy, Ancient
Manuscript, on parchment, containing copies of several treatises: 1) Tractatus de Sacramento Corpus Christi, by Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury (ff. 1-26); 2) De Vero Sapientia, Dialogus I and II, attributed here to Petrarch (now believed to be by Nicholas of Cusa) (ff. 27-50v); 3) De Invidia, Niccolò Perotti's translation of a sermon by Basil the Great, with a preface addressed to Pope Nicholas V (ff. 51-63); 4) De invidia et odio, Niccolò Perotti's translation of a work by Petrarch, with a preface addressed to Pope Nicholas V (ff. 63v-68v); 5) De fortuna virtute ve nominum: ad Nicolaum quintum pontificem maximum, by Niccolò Perotti (69-73v); 6) Epistle LXVII to Simplician, by St. Ambrose (ff. 74-79v); 7) Ex sermonibus quadragesimalibus: Sermone de correctione fraterna, by Leonardo di Utino, O.P. (80-86v); 8) Speculum regis Edwardii tercii, attributed here to Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury (now recognized as the work of William Pagula) (ff. 87-148, with skip from 89 to 100); 9) De tenenda obedientia et evitanda superbia, by St. Augustine (ff. 148-152).